During the Aug 2–3 predawn hours under dark skies at mid-northern latitudes, observers could see about 20 meteors per hour as the Perseids rise. The Moon is in first-quarter and will set in the early morning, washing out fainter Perseids and potentially reducing observed rates by about 75% near the maximum. Delta Aquariids are tapering…
Read more
The Perseids are active now and ramp toward their mid-August peak, with up to 50 to 100 meteors per hour at best, though moonlight will reduce counts. The Southern Delta Aquariids are active, producing about 3–4 meteors per hour in early August as they radiate from Aquarius and originate from Comet 96P/Machholz. Alpha Capricornids peaked…
Read more
NISAR was launched on July 30, 2025, by ISRO and NASA using a GSLV rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 5:40 p.m. IST, costing $1.5 billion, with dual L-band and S-band radars to map the entire planet every 12 days. The NISAR mission will provide freely available data to aid global climate and disaster…
Read more
Celestron Origin Intelligent Home Observatory, introduced in 2024 and shipping through 2025, uses a 6-inch Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph (RASA) at f/2.2 with an integrated 8.3-megapixel Sony STARVIS IMX178 color sensor, has no eyepiece, a fully motorized one-arm alt-azimuth mount with StarSense plate solving, built-in autofocus and dew control, and about 6 hours of cordless operation.…
Read more
101955 Bennu (1999 RQ36) is about 490 m in diameter and has a potential impact date of September 24, 2182 with a probability of about 1 in 2,700 (0.037%), though NASA says there is no chance of a hit for at least a century and a 1.4‑billion‑ton TNT impact could trigger an years‑long global “impact…
Read more
The Geminid meteor shower peaks overnight on December 13–14, 2025, with as many as 100–150 meteors per hour under dark skies, originating from asteroid 3200 Phaethon. The Ursid meteor shower peaks around December 21–22, 2025, near 11:00 UTC, typically producing 5–10 meteors per hour under dark skies thanks to a new Moon on December 20.…
Read more
The Taurid meteor showers peak with the Southern Taurids around November 5 and the Northern Taurids around November 9, 2025, in a year noted for a Taurid “swarm” of larger meteoroids. The Leonid meteor shower peaks on the night of November 16–17, 2025, under a ~9% illuminated Moon, offering about 15 meteors per hour and…
Read more
September 7, 2025 features a total lunar eclipse (Blood Moon) with about 83 minutes of totality, visible across Antarctica, Australia, Asia, the western Pacific and Africa, peaking around 18:11 UTC. A deep partial solar eclipse on September 21, 2025 reaches about 85% coverage, with maximum at 19:41 UTC and best views from New Zealand and…
Read more
Perseid Meteor Shower peaks on the night of August 11–12 (into the pre-dawn of August 13), with up to about 100 shooting stars per hour under dark skies, though the August 9 full Sturgeon Moon at 84–90% illumination will wash out many dim meteors. On the morning of August 10, a rare six-planet parade will…
Read more
SpaceX conducted two Falcon 9 Starlink launches within 24 hours (July 26 from Florida and July 27 from California), marking SpaceX’s 92nd mission of 2025, with the first booster flying 22nd time and the second booster 19th flight, and both droneship landings bringing the total to 480 recoveries. A rare global Starlink outage on July…
Read more